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Carnival Inspiration - Not So Inspiring

Sail Date:
March 2011

Destination:
Western Caribbean

Embarkation:
Tampa

Recently we went for a Spring Break Vacation to Grand Caymans and Cozumel, Mexico. We booked on Carnival Inspiration sailing from Tampa as we had a fantastic previous experience on Carnival Sensation to Bahamas a year back.

Based on the great trip we had on Carnival Sensation we upgraded our travel to Grand Suite and doled out extra 2000 dollars for it.Boy what a let down! must be the economy.

The only positive was the embarkation were we had a VIP checking in, while disembarkation the VIP checkout was UNVIP, we were crowded into a library lounge without seating and made to wait a long period before being escorted out into the crowd at the entrance of the ship.

The worst part of the vacation was the room service. It was totally atrocious,even a motel would have had a better service.

In the five days we stayed in the Grand Suite there were too many complaints to write in detail.Here we go,

1. The room was cleaned only once per day and that too we were More
forced to request the cleaning every time. Even putting the Service Sign on the door knob did not help. The reply we got from the service guy was, he had too many rooms to clean and he can do it only when we go for dinner.

2. The linens were never changed on the whole trip.

3. The day bed/sofa was changed into a bed on the first day and remained as it is until the last day, we never had a opportunity to sit on the sofa for the whole trip.

3. One day we come back from a on shore excursion to cozumel we found the room stinking with cigarette smoke smell, I asked the service guy to check the smell and he flatly denied smelling anything.

4. First two days there was a constant creaking noise in the room basically disturbing the sleep the whole night. When we complained to guest services they came in and again denied any noise, after I asked for room change something was done and from the third night onwards there was no noise.

5. The bathroom shower was not working properly and we were forced to hold it in hand all the time while we showered.

6. The toilet supplies were not properly replenished and we had to ask for it everyday.

Above all when we complained to the guest services about this, the answer we got was, we will be receiving an online survey once we are back home and we can write our complaints there and they cannot do anything more than that on the ship. Finally we rescinded the room service charges from the bill, that is the only thing we could do and got a small change of $70.00 credited in our bill.

To add the woes, the highly rated camp carnival was a disaster for the 6-8 group. One big issue was separation of siblings due to age policy they have, when asked to be flexible on this to the youth director she was very rude and that was the feed back we got from many other parents. Most of us who had children in 6-8 group formed our own circle and kept them engaged.

So my recommendation is find the best possible cheapest deal in carnival and go for it DO NOT EXPECT A PUBLIX EXPERIENCE IN WALMART AND PAY FOR IT. Less

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Cabin review: Carnival Inspiration

Port and Shore Excursions

Here also we went for the on shore excursion to Tulum, the Mayan Ruins. The ship docked an hour late at the pier. We rushed to the ferry terminal to go to Playa-del Carmen and a bus ride from there to Tulum. The ferry ride was good, the ship was fast and they had refreshments that you can buy on the ship. We were picked up by the tour guide and walked through Playa town to board the bus, We enjoyed the 10 minutes walk through the town. The town is very neat and nice, definitely a place to revisit in a leisure. The tour guide was very good, very knowledgeable and highly qualified on mayan culture and history, very lucky to have a guide like that explain the history and culture of Mayans. Tulum is breath-taking. The location is out of the world. Need to come back again. Only disappointment in the trip was we had very little time at the Mayan Craft center. It was filled with great handicrafts and we could not browse and buy what we wanted, we had only 20 minutes stop over there because of the ships late docking. One tip, if you have children take ample snacks as you will not get any refreshments or food on the way.

We disembarked at Grand Cayman early morning 8AM. We were booked on a on shore excursion by Carnival. We visited Turtle Farm, Hell and Sting Ray City. The tour Guide was very informed and told us a lot about the places we visited. The kids loved Turtle Farm and Sting Ray City. In turtle farm we saw giant green turtles and had a chance to hold turtles in hand, it was a great thrill for the kids. Sting ray city was fantastic, except a bit crowded. Here also you can catch and hold the giant southern sting rays and it was a good experience. The boat ride to the sand bar was decent. The only disappointment was no time to lounge on seven mile beach. The tour says seven mile beach but that is only a drive through, beware of that. Overall the port experience was pleasant.